Being overweight puts more load on the joint. This can increase the risk of osteoarthritis in the knee. The risk of hand and hip osteoarthritis also increases with obesity. This tells us that other things about being overweight can be linked to getting osteoarthritis.

Don’t be like this guy!

Physical Activity has a lot of benefits

Weak muscles won’t provide proper support to a joint. This leads to more loads being applied to areas of cartilage that don’t take weight well. This can overload the cartilage and increase the risk for knee osteoarthritis.

Half of all people with a severe knee injury (meniscus or cruciate ligament injury), often from sports, get osteoarthritis 10-15 years later. Most people hurt their knee as a teenager, which means that they can get osteoarthritis in their 30s. Top level sports can cause great loads on the whole body without allowing for regeneration. This can lead to degeneration of cartilage.

Lots of load over a long period of time without rest can cause osteoarthritis later in life. People who work as labourers (farmers, firefighters, etc.) are more at risk of hip and knee osteoarthritis. Teachers seem to get more hand osteoarthritis.